Sabathia Outduels Verlander as Yankees Top Tigers

Jayson Nix gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead with an unlikely two-run homer against the Tigers ace, Justin Verlander.

Gregory Shamus / Getty Images

By DAVID WALDSTEIN

April 7, 2013

DETROIT — With the Yankees sputtering in the opening week of the season and showing few signs of hope, Sunday’s game was surprisingly important for this early date.

Few would ever characterize an April 7 game as a must-win affair, but there was little doubt that C. C. Sabathia pitched as if it were.

In a commanding performance that left the Yankees reassured about their ace, Sabathia limited the Tigers to four hits in seven innings, and the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-0, to salvage the finale of the teams’ three-game series at Comerica Park.

The Yankees had lost four of five to open the season, reinforcing early skepticism about the team. Worse, Sabathia had allowed four earned runs in five innings on opening day. Another poor performance and another loss could have added mild panic in some quarters.

But by outdueling the Tigers’ ace, Justin Verlander, Sabathia sent a message that he can dominate even one of the most fearsome lineups in baseball.

“He stepped up when we needed him,” the injured first baseman Mark Teixeira said. “It’s a short season so far, but we want to make sure we’re on the right side of .500 pretty quickly. This game is going to help that.”

While Sabathia was limiting the Tigers to four singles and three walks, the Yankees had their best offensive output of the season with 13 hits, including a two-run homer by Jayson Nix, the third-string shortstop who had previously been held to a single in 11 at-bats against Verlander.

Nix, filling in for the injured Eduardo Nunez, who was subbing for the injured Derek Jeter, hit a 2-1 changeup over the bullpen in left field and added a single off Verlander in the seventh.

Verlander fell to 1-1 and still has never started a season 2-0.

But it was Sabathia’s performance that was most noteworthy. His fastball, which raised minor alarm bells after his first start because of its lack of velocity, was still not overpowering. He threw mostly 90 and 91 miles per hour, touching 93 once on the radar gun. But his location, change of pace and movement were all excellent, and more than enough to baffle a powerful Tigers order.

Sabathia’s best work came against Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, who tortured Yankees pitchers in the first two games of the series. Neither recorded a hit off Sabathia, and Fielder struck out twice.

Before the game, Manager Joe Girardi played down concerns about Sabathia’s velocity in his last start, and Sabathia made Girardi look prescient. In the fifth inning, Sabathia got Cabrera to ground out meekly to second base on a 90-m.p.h. fastball, and in the sixth he did the same to Fielder.

“It’s obviously very early,” said Phil Hughes, who was roughed up in a loss to the Tigers on Saturday, “but you never want to get swept, and he has a tendency to step up when we need it most. He did it again today.”

The Tigers had a runner on base in each of the first six innings, but never got anyone to third base against Sabathia. He had his first 1-2-3 inning in the seventh, but he wanted to do more.

The Yankees’ bullpen had been heavily taxed in recent days, and Sabathia was looking to ease its load as much as possible.

His 114th and final pitch was a full-count changeup to strike out Austin Jackson, and Sabathia then let out a scream of frustration that he had not been more efficient.

“I was really upset with myself,” he said. “Seventh inning and we’ve got a 3-0 lead, and I go 3-2 with every hitter.”

Dave Robertson pitched around two singles in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera, working in a non-save situation, did the same in the ninth to seal the victory as the Yankees improved to 2-4. Equally important, Sabathia had helped contain further panic.

“He understood what it meant,” Girardi said. “That’s a very good team we beat today.”

INSIDE PITCH

Kevin Youkilis hit a double off Justin Verlander in the first inning that caused some friction between the two. Verlander thought Youkilis had yelled something as he ran the bases and yelled back at Youkilis as he stood at second. Youkilis played down the incident. “It was nothing,” said Youkilis, who added a two-run single in the ninth to raise his average to .409. ... In a pregame ceremony, Tigers Manager Jim Leyland presented Mariano Rivera, who will retire after the season, with a framed memento containing photographs of Rivera at Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park and bottles filled with dirt from each field. ... The three-game series drew 127,333 fans, the most in Detroit for an opening series since 1948.